Current volunteering opportunities
Discover the volunteering opportunities we have at The National Archives, both on site in London and online.
Volunteering with us
Volunteers are essential to the work of the National Archives. Discover what our volunteers do, how they support us and how you can get involved.
For over 20 years, our dedicated volunteers have worked on a wide range of tasks, from paper cataloguing and conservation to online collaborations, helping us widen and enhance the accessibility of our collections.
Volunteers enable us to do a depth and breadth of work, often over extended periods. They contribute specialist skills and knowledge, and many develop expertise in particular records, and bring experience from work with wider networks in the archival sector.
Working with volunteers provides an opportunity for The National Archives to engage on a deeper level with users, and increase mutual understanding of their requirements and our activities.
Why volunteer?
By volunteering at The National Archives, you will be contributing to how our archives are accessed and engaged with far into the future.
Whether you have a passion for history and records, want to improve your knowledge and skills, or simply want to get involved in something worthwhile, volunteering at The National Archives can help you to achieve your aim.
Volunteers have benefited by volunteering by:
- improving IT and other work-related skills
- feeling part of a community
- improving confidence and work-place experience for job hunting
- building connections and gaining new friends
Your impact
Our volunteers help us to protect and preserve over 1,000 years of iconic national documents. As a volunteer, you are essential to many externally funded partnerships and projects which help increase The National Archive’s reach and impact.
This can include working on a range of projects, from cataloguing Britain's colonial histories to sorting Second World War personnel cards, and so much more.
Our volunteers often feedback that this work is varied, interesting and highly rewarding.
Project Success: Tracing medical records from the First World War
A group of volunteers who worked on the MH 106 project.
Within our archives, there are 306 boxes of medical case sheets from the First World War (1914 –1918), catalogued in the MH 106 series.
The records are a surviving sample of medical records relating to servicepeople who required medical diagnosis and treatment during the First World War. The majority of the records were destroyed in 1975.
Previously only catalogued in alphabetical ranges and by hospital, regiment, or type of ailment, our volunteers have now completed the cataloguing of over 125,000 records. You can now search by name, rank, regiment, as well as medical ailment or war wound on our online catalogue, Discovery.
Collection blog
Tracing medical records from the First World War
Discover more on the project in our blog, Tracing medical records from the First World War.
What to expect
Our volunteers have worked on a wide range of tasks, working with original records at our site in Kew and contributing to digital based projects remotely.
How much time you spend volunteering is up to you, your availability and preferences, and what project(s) you are working.
Regular attendance and commitment are preferred so that we can ensure that our volunteer projects operate smoothly and efficiently, but we appreciate that many volunteers require flexibility.
Current opportunities
Discover what volunteering opportunities we have available at The National Archives.